DISTROBOX-ENTER(1)

🌸 DISTROBOX-ENTER(1) — the user manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so you opened the manual for distrobox-enter (yes, the man page is literally called DISTROBOX-ENTER(1), and it lives in the User Manual section). sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, and let's get you inside your container. no cap, this one's a banger.

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✨ NAME ✨

distrobox enter distrobox-enter

that's it, that's the name. it's giving "one job, iconic execution." 👑

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

distrobox-enter handles the whole getting you into the container with the name you specified thing. that's the vibe. 🦋

by default the command it runs for you is your SHELL, but bestie you are not locked in — you can name a different shell, or yeet an entire command in there to run instead. and if you're calling this from inside a script, an application, or a service (iykyk), you can flip on the --headless mode to disable the tty and the interactivity. no terminal, no chatting, just vibes and execution. periodt.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

distrobox enter

and here are all the flags, every single one, no skips:

• --name, -n — the name for the distrobox. default: my-distrobox
• --, -e — end the arguments here, and execute the rest of them as the command to run at login. default: your default ${USER}'s shell
• --no-tty, -T — do not instantiate a tty. no tty for you, bestie 🙈
• --no-workdir, -nw — always start the container from the container's home directory
• --additional-flags, -a — extra flags to pass along to the container manager command
• --help, -h — show this message
• --root, -r — launch podman/docker/lilipod with root privileges. quick note: if you need root, this is the preferred way over sudo distrobox. (and another note: if you need to use a program other than sudo to get root privileges, specify it through the DBX_SUDO_PROGRAM env variable, or the distrobox_sudo_program config variable) 👑
• --dry-run, -d — only print out the container manager command that would be generated. look, don't touch.
• --verbose, -v — show more verbosity
• --version, -V — show version

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

enter a distrobox named "example"

distrobox-enter example

slay, you're in.

enter a distrobox and specify a command

distrobox-enter --name fedora-toolbox-35 -- bash -l
distrobox-enter my-alpine-container -- sh -l

look at you, picking your own shell like a main character.

use additional podman/docker/lilipod flags while entering a distrobox

distrobox-enter --additional-flags "--preserve-fds" --name test -- bash -l

specify additional environment variables while entering a distrobox

distrobox-enter --additional-flags "--env MY_VAR=value" --name test -- bash -l
MY_VAR=value distrobox-enter --additional-flags "--preserve-fds" --name test -- bash -l

two ways, both valid, both cute. 💜

you can also use environment variables to specify the container manager and the container name

DBX_CONTAINER_MANAGER="docker" DBX_CONTAINER_NAME=test-alpine distrobox-enter

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🧚

• DBX_CONTAINER_NAME
• DBX_CONTAINER_MANAGER
• DBX_SKIP_WORKDIR
• DBX_SUDO_PROGRAM

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⭐ EXTRA ⭐

this command is what you use to enter the distrobox itself. personally? the author literally just creates multiple profiles in their gnome-terminal so they have multiple distros accessible at once. honestly, relatable. 🌸

the --additional-flags (or -a) is useful when you want to modify the default command that gets executed in the container. for example:

distrobox enter -n dev-arch --additional-flags "--env my_var=test" -- printenv &| grep my_var
my_var=test

and this is possible with normal env variables too:

my_var=test distrobox enter -n dev-arch --additional-flags -- printenv &| grep my_var
my_var=test

now, if you'd like to enter a rootful container and you want distrobox to use a program other than sudo to run podman/docker/lilipod as root — something like pkexec or doas — you can specify it with the DBX_SUDO_PROGRAM environment variable. for example, to use doas to enter a rootful container:

DBX_SUDO_PROGRAM="doas" distrobox enter -n container --root

and additionally: in one of the config file paths that distrobox supports — such as ~/.distroboxrc — you can also append the line distrobox_sudo_program="doas" (for example) to always run distrobox commands involving rootful containers using doas. set it once, forget it forever. that's the dream. 💫

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this manual came from the Distrobox source (version dated Mar 2026), and yes, DISTROBOX-ENTER(1) is the official name on the tin. now go forth and enter something. 🫶✨💖